July 30, 2011

It’s just over a year ago that this cute little iphone app for kids was published. And it is still running strong. For me the most special thing about it, is that I partially made it. I programmed two of the five games in it.

The app called Bobo, after a rabbit which is an educational comic in the Netherlands for kids aged 4-6 years. It has its own website at www.bobo.nl.

Somebody posted a video on youtube with his kid playing the Bobo app.

There is this website where the rankings of iphone apps are tracked. The rankings of the Bobo app are being tracked here. It is interesting to see how this app only thrives in the Netherlands and Belgium. One could say it is a language issue, but the thing is that this app uses no language. Okay, it uses the western alphabet and western numbers. That it makes it only more surprising that Bulgaria (with its Cyrillic alphabet) is the third country where the app is popular.

The games in the app are not directly related to the rabbit Bobo. But still it seems that familiarity in a country with this rabbit makes the app more popular. I can understand that a bit. But should it make such a big difference? It seems to me that the app is just as much fun for kids in the US or the UK or Germany. And especially it is a nice app to keep your kids in the back of the car quiet, while you are driving to a holiday destination. It’s holiday time again, and the app is back on the top of the charts.